Re: [cybalist] Re: Easter

----- Original Message -----

From: Dennis Poulter

To: cybalist@egroups.com

Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2000 6:55 AM

Subject: Re: [cybalist] Re: Easter

Thanks, Denis.

 

Yu're right, the aspiration of medial -rr- was automatic, even if not marked in the spelling, so the Latin form is simply a Latin spelling of Attic Greek /turrEnos/ (phonetically with a voiceless [r]). As for the retention of /rs/, older forms with /rs/ and younger ones with /rr/ can both be found even in Attic (e.g. dersis 'flaying' : derris 'skin used as clothing'), and /rs/ is normal in Homeric Greek and in Ionic, Aeolic and Cretan dialects. The sequence was traeted in a special way in sigmatic aorists, but even there Homer often has /rs/.

 

 

Thanks Piotr for your post. I've checked on this some more, and this is what I've found.

/rs/ can either be maintained, or develop into /rr/ (Attic, Lesbian) or /lengthened vowel + r/.

Leonard Palmer, in The Greek Language, states : "According to the grammarians, initial /r/ was aspirated, as was the second /r/ in the medial cluster /-rr-/..."

This would provide the /h/ of the Latin "Tyrrhenus", which is otherwise unexplainable.

So, I was wrong to attribute the /h/ of Tyrrhenus to Greek /s > h/, but it still seems to be a Greek phenomenon rather than Latin.

So, while Herodotos used /tursEno-/ exclusively, the Latin form would be borrowed from a dialect variant /turREno-/ (R=aspirated /r/).

 

Regards

Dennis